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Saturday, July 02, 2011

DOTM Friday's US Box Office Results

Day 3 of Transformers: Dark of the Moon continues to rack up the totals at the US box office by adding another $33.5 million to its total for $97 million according to Deadline. This is off by 15% on Revenge of the Fallen's numbers but international box office should more than make up the difference since it is doing 35% better.

The reported estimates for the five day weekend US side is around $160M with a first week total of $185M. International numbers not yet available but the estimate there is another $200M for $385M for the first week. The importance of international sales should not be under estimated. For example Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides box office in US was $232M but a huge $756M overseas. While I don't think the disparity will be that extreme for DOTM, I do think that oversea sales will account for at least 60% of its total (compared to ROTF with 52%).

Bay wants to cross the $1 billion box office threshold. Because of Pirates 4, he knew international sales would be critical to that goal which is why the cast promoted the film everywhere else first while letting TV spots do the promoting for them in the states. So far it seems that choice is paying off. Thanks to Winston for the link.

19 comments:

3D ticket prices in most countries are 30% higher than normal 2D prices so it's pretty normal that with fewer viewers there is a 35% gain outside US. In Europe 3D tickets range 10-15Euros while 2D ones are in the 5-8Euros range.

I just wanted to weigh in with a few thoughts about Bay and the movie future of transformers.

Bay's impact on the Transformer films and the property as a whole is as undeniable as it is controversial. It's worth remembering that every major studio in Hollywood, including Paramount initially rejected the idea of a transformer film. It's worth remembering that without Spielberg there is a chance a transformer movie wouldn't have gotten made at all. Spielberg says he thought Bay was the perfect director to bring transformers to the big screen. It is rumored that Bay is the only director who would take a meeting about a transformer movie but that remains unproven. Regardless of how he got the job even the most hardcore "Bayformers" critic cannot deny that because of his movies the Transformers property has a status it hasn't had since its 80's heyday and maybe the biggest its ever been. Certainly the movies have introduced transformers to many people, increased the amount of toys and written literature being produced and set the stage for even bigger and better things in the future. Transformers and ROTF rank among the most successful movies of all time; I'm sure DOTM will achieve similar BO success.

Ultimately it's up to every individual to decide how they feel about the movies and how they fit into their love of Transformers. For me, the movies reawakened a passion that had been dead for over 20 years and they are among my favorite movies.

As for the future transformers on the big-screen it's as scary as it is exciting. Whenever we discuss the negative aspects of "Bayformers" it's easy to think another director could easily take over the franchise, recognize the faults of Bay's movies, make positive changes and make better movies. If only it were that simple. Every transformers fan wants a film series equal to the quality of Sam Raimi's Spiderman movies or Christopher Nolan's Batman movies. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade but it could get worse. Think about fanbase and general audience reactions to X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins:Wolverine, Superman Returns, Green Lantern, Thor, Watchmen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Incredible Hulk movies, Constantine, Daredevil or the Fantastic Four movies. Look at that list, these are big-budget studio movies and some of them are just awful, truly not in the class of Bay's transformer movies. If nothing else Bay has imagined transformers on a grand scale, dreamed of amazing action set pieces and set the visual bar incredibly high; Bay's moves had ambition for greatness, even if they did fall short.

Our message to Hasbro and Paramount cannot be "Anyone But Bay"...it needs to be "Better Than Bay". The next transformer film needs a director who will work with a talented writer or writers to flesh out the best story possible, a director who will demand photo-real transformers from whichever VFX house creates them, stage the kind of awe inspiring action scenes only CGI created transformers can deliver and most importantly a director who seeks to elevate the next transformers movie beyond popcorn status in a way that Bay never did or could. The patient, quality over quickness collaborative approach between David Goyer and Christopher Nolan should be the model. Hopefully after the next transformers film we're not thinking "God, Bay's transformers movies were great compared to this".

Hey guys, I know this is a bit off the box-office topic, but can you tell me the name of that green, pet-like decepticon that was with Megatron when he was in Africa and then again in when he was in D.C?

As if I haven't said enough...it's somewhat easy to forget how truly massive these movies have been finacially. Only the Spiderman movies have made more in the comic/super hero genre. Yeah, I know The Dark Knight made more money but when you consider how much Batman Begins made it's hard not to think that a large part of TDK's earings were tied to the curiosity surounding Heath Ledger's performance and subsequent death.

You made several excellent points. Love or hate Mr. Bay, he has made the entire TRANSFORMERS franchise respectable again. Personally, these movies got me to fall in love with TRANSFORMERS all over again.(: I have been a die-hard fan since age 4 and never in my wildest dreams did I think that TRANSFORMERS would be brought to life on the big screen in a truly larger-than-life scale. My Dad, who loves TRANSFORMERS just as much as I do, and I have throughly enjoyed all 3 movies. They provide us with an escape from the troubles of every day life and they give us something to talk about every day. Were there several things that could have been corrected in these 3 TF movies, yes but I'm not going to list them here mostly because I don't have time. I will say 1 thing about TF3, I loved it, but gosh, they should have left 25 minutes of this film on the cutting room floor. If they did so, you still would've had a terrific film. As regards to the future of the TF franchise as a whole, things should only get bigger and better from here on out. Universal Studios Hollywood will be opening a TRANSFORMERS theme park ride next summer. ( My parents and I have already begun planning that trip.(;) Eventually, Universal will and should bring it to 1 of their 2 parks in Florida. I'm sure the suits at Hasbro are already planning new video games, toys, comic books. etc to keep TF fans occupied for a long time. IMO, after the way that TF3 ended, (I won't give away any major plot twists or spoilers, but a LOT of major characters die) the only logical way to go now is the reboot route. I would love to see James Cameron direct the TF reboot, but whoever does, I'll be more than willing to give him a fair chance because of my never-ending love for everything TRANSFORMERS! This is going to sound like a dumb question, but if there is a TF reboot, I assume that they will have to redesign all of the robot characters again right?

about the international box office, here in venezuela its not at theaters yet, the movie has dissapeared from the cinemas and there are two rumors about it, one is that the goverment doesnt aproved the movie becauase somewhere int he plot it names venezuela or the president in a "offensive" way. Two, the distribution company dont want any competition to harry potter. DO YOU KNOW ANY REASON WHY IS DELAYED AND GOT NO RELEASE DATE HERE IN VENEZUELA?

I gotta say... I'm not sure what all the moaning and groaning about the Transformers movies are about. C'mon! They are based off of cartoons, that if you watch them (the G1 show from the 1980s), they are really cheesy at times. And I like watching it still. But to translate it into a movie that has this award winning story line is just not realistic thinking. I liked the first movie, didn't care for the second (except for about 20 total minutes of Optimus kicking ass), and I thought the 3rd movie was amazing. Sure there were some things that could be different (Shockwave standing around, Optimus suddenly having his flight tech without any explanation how he got it back when it was right by Shockwave, etc.), but overall, I left the theater blown away and in awe of the spectacle it was. Love him or hate him, Michale Bay delivers a spectacle.

ya see my man winton knows how to be criticle, while being respectful and i couldnt agree with you more, some things bay does gets my goat but the man can put together some pretty awesome seens and great action sets and some great special effects but thats it, the rest is just plain out goofy, and i also agree that know matter what, bay helped bring this franchise to the big screen and i will always be greatful for that and for those of you who say bay ruined the franchise thats total bullshit, this franchise is extremely strong and on solid ground ,and i also hope the next director improves on what bay did, good and bad. Dispite some faults with these movies its been a blast and i had alot of fun and i'm going to miss it, but i am excited as hell to move on, enough bayhem

A total redesign of the characters for future movies would be a big disappointment to me. The movie-verse style looks good, with a few exceptions such as Que and the Twins, is familiar to the audience, and translates well to photo realistic transforming robots on the big screen. Creating new designs could potentially result in people rejecting the changes to the characters they've come to recognize and enjoy.

I think movie studios need to be careful in how much they use reboots of franchises. Pretty soon people are going to start having reboot fatigue, similar to 3-D fatigue. The franchise is currently standing on a stable foundation. Any new movies with a new director don't have disregard what's been done in the first three movies. Afterall, the TF universe is large and there are a lot of stories that can still be explored without completely starting from scratch.

I for one don't want a complete reboot, but instead would like to see any new movies building on what's already been done and contributing towards a Transformers movie saga.

Winton Ray hit it right on the head. This has been a most awesome 4 years (or 5 if you want to count the year leading up to the '07 movie- has it really been that long?), and I can't see these movies being done any other way. The Transformers' designs were epic, the voice actors (all of them, but thank God for P.C!) were epic, and the fight scenes were epic. If they did a reboot, I'd feel bad for the new director because everything he does would be compared to Bay's. I can't envision Ironhide, Bee, or Optimus Prime looking any different, or god forbid, what if they got different voice actors? If they did that, I suppose I could give the new guy a chance, but boy did Bay set the bar high. And Jablonsky did the most amazing scores, don't forget! The DOTM score brought tears to my eyes when some of the songs were playing during the sad scenes. People who saw it know which scenes I'm talking about. I can't help but feel really bummed out that I have no more Transformers to look forward to. If they do decide on a reboot, I hope they don't wait too long!

WOW!!, what a good discussion we got here, everyone's got great comments, I also like the designs of the bots but if we get a new director he has every right to change the designs, I hope they keep the designs and just enhance what's already there ,making them even more badass, because everyone is used to them by now, exspecialy bee, lots of emotions there. So its going to be quite interesting to see where this franchise goes from here

I remember watching the G1 cartoons in the 80's, and while I thought those character designs are all right, I think I'd rather see the 80's movie redone with the current designs. Seeing Optimus in cgi as a flat front truck doesn't work for me now. Ditto with Ironhide's new look. They just look more fiercer. I've been spoiled. But I agree a redo of the 80's movie with the mistakes fixed up would be cool.

lmao the 80's movie would never work in a live-action movie it was silly...A planet eating transformer? really? Now they could take some things from it but that's all... the 80's cartoon did have its plotholes and cheesy moments...Rodimus Prime!! No sir heavens no...Just make a new movie introduce Unicron(as a badass evil Transformer not a damn planet) and Galvatron as the bad guys..bring in Hot-Rod, Air-Raid, and Silverbolt as well too..lol some of you people if put in charge would completely destroy the franchise lol you have to think about the general public too and I know a planet eating transformer would look ridiculous to them..just like fantastic 4 it won't work a cartoon is different from live action..